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Massive Small Form Factor Preview From Computex
Ultim8pc points to this "huge article covering almost every Small Form Factor offering that was on show at Computex. Includes, details of each manufacturers history in SFF." I especially like IWill's oscilloscope-looking Athlon 64 case.
an alterntive article if you can't get your hands on the (large, and soon to be slashdotted) article above.
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
Like 8 years ago, when i actually went to Lan party's!
"Talk minus action equals nothing" - Joey Shithead, D.O.A.
"Talk minus action equals
As technology advances, fitting more and more into smaller and smaller spaces... Why do cars keep getting bigger and bigger?
search google
Good news: Doesn't take up a lot of desk space. Bad news: Desk must be extra heavy duty to support all that massiveness. Worst case scenario: Someone clusters together a bunch of massive small form factor machines; they collapse into a speck of neutronium and fall to the center of the Earth. Stefan
To me, bigger is better, and even better if rack-mount. I want room for fans (the more the better), and plenty of air-flow.
My second rack just went in, now I have to find someplace else to park the car (yes, I actually *did* park my car in the garage...
My Karma is bad. May I take you out for a drink? It's on me...
I kinda wish they'd zoomed out a bit so you could get a perspective of how big the computers are. Or at least had something next to them so you could judge their size.
slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
At a mere 49cm^2, those motherboards are freaking tiny, you can fit a whole 1.5Ghz machine into the size of a FLOPPY DISK DRIVE.
I know that having smaller computers is nice for some people, but what really is the point? The smallest computer I own is 24" tall. Have you ever tried to cram 5 3.5" hdd's into a micro ATX case without losing a couple fingers in the process? I have, and it isn't fun.
What does the phrase Small Form Factor mean - or is it a proper noun?
Video Game cheats, hints a
...but now I keep losing computers.
Yes the site is already /. So anyway what I would like is a nice small PC, size of a small hug,with solid state storage, USB connection and can play DivX movies over WiFi. Just sits under the TV and allows you to stream
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
Print link for simpler downloading.
Me too! One night, I was writing a paper on my PC, when all of a sudden it went berserk, the screen started flashing, it was like "beep beep beep beep beep"...and the whole computer just disappeared.
All of it.
And it was good computer!
Thats what she said. :-(
Easy guys, I put my pants on one leg at a time. The difference is after I put on my pants I make gold records!
The first thing I noticed on the alternate story link is the two PS/2 cables sticking out the front.
Can anyone explain to me why there are still boxes shipping with the old PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports? Doesn't every OS worth installing on x86 hardware support USB now? Futhermore, why can't I find a decent keyboard with extra USB slots in it and with out all the redundant "multimedia" buttons (ala iMac) so I can hide the box under the table?
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hecubas
Hecubas
I took a broken GameCube, gutted it, and put in some SFF components. The controller ports made great PS2 ports, and I carved out slots where the memory cards went for USB. The only problem was the power supply, which is sticking a bit out of the rear of the 'Cube. I keep it next to my working GameCube just to throw people off.
bummer.
Frankly, I think an LCD monitor, featureless keyboard and mouse are more than enough for my desktop. I'd like to see someone design a computer that can hang next to my suits in the closet so I don't have to look at it anymore.
...it became slashdoted. I didn't get very far, but let me guess, a bunch of cases with windows in the side and neon lights inside.
Or, for those of you missing ol' Zippy: A bunch of CASES with windows in the SIDE and NEON LIGHTS inside. hmmmm. Seems much more appropriate.
so that's like, what, the regular ol' beige box I have next to my desk right now?
the coolest club on
"Stealth" is used as a verb 13 times, and only twice as an adjective.
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One entry found for stealth.
Main Entry: stealth
Pronunciation: 'stelth
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English stelthe; akin to Old English stelan to steal
Date: 13th century
1 a archaic : THEFT b obsolete : something stolen
2 : the act or action of proceeding furtively, secretly, or imperceptibly
3 : the state of being furtive or unobtrusive
4 : an aircraft-design characteristic consisting of oblique angular construction and avoidance of vertical surfaces that is intended to produce a very weak radar return
You leave my small form factor out of this. I promise it's not *that* small.
The Human Cow - bringing you scrumtrelescence since 1995
So what is a massively small form factor? A minitower or a full tower?
I used my shuttle as a personal computer at work, taking it to/from work every day. It's small enough to make that practical. I added a KVM switch at work to make pluging it in a breeze! My box had a 200 & 80 Gig drive and a Nvidia GForce 4 Ti4200 128M card. Totally blew away my tower system at work :) Great for demos of celestia and for playing months of music, ... Not to mention being able to use Source Navigator to cruise my code library...
If you want a no compromise portable computer then SFF is the way to go. I have yet to find a laptop keyboard that I like and the drives are too slow for really demanding tasks. They are great for disconnected computing, but if have monitor/keyboard/mouse at the destination then SFF works great.
The other place where SFF really comes into it's own is for computing in tight spaces. Boats, RV's, small office/desk situations.
Of course once you get used to them you have to ask yourself how long the towers are going to last.
It seems odd to me, these small computers are all the rage now . . . yet Apple closed out the G4 Cube after not being able to sell enough of them. What gives?
Divine, it's not cheap but it sure looks nice.
I'm mostly a Mac guy myself, but I've been looking at various x86 boxen to work as a media hub for my living room because of the various form factors they're available in. (I particularly like the Asus DiGiMatrix).
But I wonder what OS or GUI I should run? Windows is out. Linux seems more than capable (though the lack of the Sorensen codec is a bummer) and I'm familiar with it from developing.
But here's my catch: I don't want a windowed GUI. I want an interface like TiVo. Something that can be controlled easily with a remote. The TiVo/iPod cascading menus design is perfect for this application.
Is there anything out there like this? I know it'll limit the applications I can run, since they'll most likely need to be built for this interface rather than X Windows, but all I need is MP3/AAC playback, Image viewing, and MPEG recording and viewing.
These computers mostly seem to be built under the assumption that you actually need a HDD, FDD, and CDRW/DVD on every desk.
I will add this to the list next to jumbo shrimp...
the HHK is a membrane keyboard, little collapsing rubber domes rather than a a mechanical-switch design. It's better than many such keyboards are, and is definitely a high-quality device. I'd buy one, if not for the keyfeel, which to me is anything but clicky. Without a jillion little springs, 8lbs of steel and an eye of newt, it will always be a membrane keyboard.
:)
Clicky? Model M
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
These computers all look nice, but I'm dissappointed that every one of them has legacy ports on them.
They can get rid of serial, ps/2, and parallel at the very least. I like how some of them are using slimline cd/dvd drives. Anything to make them smaller.
The smller machines usually have 1 pci slot. I wish they dumped that and dropped in an agp slot instead. Everything I used pci for in the past is now being done with usb. I can live without it now.
I would like to see some company morph this technology into a portable desktop PC. With a real USB keybaord and mouse and an easily setup 17" moniter (or even better portable head gear) I have a laptop, but because it's keyboard is too small and touch pad too clunky, I end up bringing my mouse and keyboard with me and if I have access to on, pluging into a real moniter. As far as I'm concerned, I think "Laptops" should be made into a backpack or carry on which hold the periferials.
JFMILLER
Strive to make your client happy, not necessarly give them what they ask for
"As technology advances, fitting more and more into smaller and smaller spaces... Why do cars keep getting bigger and bigger?"
Customers are getting fatter.
Actually, 5 if you count two mobos in one machine.
Both my Pentium II mobos, my Athlon and Athlon XP mobos and now my P4 mobo all let you get into the BIOS with a USB keyboard.
literacy is a bitch
When you went to Lan party's what? Who is this "Lan party" person anyway?
When you use an apostrophe, you are making the word possesive, not plural. Also, small numbers should be spelled out (8 should be eight), and the pronoun "I" is always an upper case "I", never a lower case "i", unless you have really low self esteem.
This is what you should have typed: "Like eight years ago, when I actually went to LAN parties!"
It's not that hard to use the language correctly. It's too bad there are no error messages in the use of English or these types of mistake would be far less common.
The whole article is basically an ad, anyway.
NANO-ITX formfactor looked about the size of four pentium-IV CPUs arranged in a square: no greater than 4" x 4" x 4" x4" !!!
Other than that, the whole article is repetitive. I feel sorry for the exhibitors going to that convention thinking they all had a unique product, then discovered their Jelly Dohnut looks the same as everyone else's. Come to think of it, all the manufacturers/vendors had nothing good to show with exception to VIA's product. Via put cardbus on their motherboard, but what sucks is they sacrificed the AGP for a singl PCI. And why don't the manufacturers use more external active PCI bridges?
Keep walking. Nothing to see here. It's all bullshit "Hello Kitty" sorta thing. And all the manufacturers are in Communist China, and all the products look the same. This computing age sucks!
There is no variance. If ObiWanKenobi were alive today, he would be commenting on how faggety the force is beginning to feel.
Come to think of it, everything including slashdot is faggety. Fagetty Fag Fuck Fuck Fucker!
Well I'd love to have read that article but unfortunately the myriad flashing gifs blink tags and huge animated flash ads right at top centre of each page made me feel dizzy. Hell, it even made my browser sick. I've left the page already and my browser still hasn't recovered. What kind of idiot thinks that sort of page design is OK?
Along with Microsoft Optical Trackball, both are the only good products from Microsoft. And the only two Microsoft products I use at home :)
Less is more !